Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts

Subject: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 06:58 PM

I have been interested in this since I first noticed "I'd like to teach the world to sing" turned into a Coke Ad.

Saw Willie McCoy (Mitsubishi Advert) tody.

Also many tunes have been used for TV programs, but that is not what I am interested in for this thread.

There must be lots more out there. There may be even some threads around here already. Please link to those you know, or mention any songs other here. If you want to post the words to songs - please use another thread and link to it.

Thanks
Robin

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Joybell
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:02 PM

Mr Sheen - the cleaning product - used the Gallagher and Sheen song. Do you need a separate thread for this one Robin? You probably know it.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:12 PM

Thanks Joybell,
I think I have seen that somewhere on a thread here - I haven't had time to start searching the Forum DB for the ones I can remember...

Robin

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Joybell
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:16 PM

OK Robin if you don't turn it up Hildebrand sings it around the place all the time. I can post it if it's not already here. Joy

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:20 PM

Did I recently hear John Mckutcheon singing for an SUV comercial??????

I coulda swore it was him!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: GUEST,GUESTkate
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:23 PM

John McCutcheon sings on a USPS commercial :D

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:28 PM

I Think it was Playstation - sounds like Shirley Temple -
something about "get on board the train"

If you want to identify Mudcatters who sing on Commercials - how about a new thread? :D

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: The Shambles
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:31 PM

There is a new car (UK) ad that uses a 'jazzed' version of 'May The Circle Be Unbroken'.

It shows how good these new car ads are when you know the advert but don't know the product.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:43 PM

Saw a TV advert (Aus) a few times a while ago - can't remember what it was for...

The words were "Take me to the water" with lots of images of water - still can't get that out of my head....

Sounded like a slow blues gospel thingie - but they could just have pinched a tradition, not just a song...

Robin

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: GUEST,pdq
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 07:46 PM

Richie Havens did AMTRACK commercials for years.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Peace
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 08:13 PM

GUEST,pdq: I seem to remember reading/hearing somewhere that the voice sounded like Richie--but it wasn't actually him.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: GUEST,pdq
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 08:21 PM

He was a guest on a talk show and said it was him. Maybe they got a soundalike later ???

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Mark Clark
Date: 05 Dec 03 - 11:00 PM

‘I have been interested in this since I first noticed "I'd like to teach the world to sing" turned into a Coke Ad.’

Actually, that song was written and produced only for Coca Cola. The ad strategy was to have a version on the pop charts that didn't actually include the Coke® brand but delivered the same message (free) to everyone who heard the song on the radio.

As I recall, Michael Jackson owns the rights to all the Beatles songs so he can sell one as a commercial anytime he isn't too busy playing with children.

      - Mark

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: DonMeixner
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 01:22 AM

I don't imagine Tom Paxton didn't enjoy the royalties he got from Ken'L'Ration for "My Dog's Bigger Than Your Dog".

I seem to recall Leon Redbone flying through several commercials. Funny, I recall Leon flying but not the product. Odd.


Now Mark,

What Michael is accussed of doing can't be considered playing, can it?

Don

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: GUEST,Truthtroller
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 02:50 PM

Mark,I do believe the thread is Songs pinched for Adverts, don't creep into a Jackson thread you creep.


T.T.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 02:54 PM

"John McCutcheon sings on a USPS commercial"

That's what it was... I knew there was a truck involved somewhere...

any idea what song it is?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: GUEST,pdq
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 03:04 PM

Michael Jackson did buy the rights to the Beatles song catalogue and did sell "Revolution" to advertisers. I heard the commercial on TV. Paul McCartney convinced Jackson to have it pulled immediately or permanant hard feelings would result.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: annamill
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 03:09 PM

zeppelin's doing cadillac!

"It's been a long time since I rocknrolled.."

Love, Annamill

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: annamill
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 03:14 PM

It was "ALL" detergent commercials that had Leon's beautiful soft gentle voice. Roger from Baltimore does a mean Leon Redbone, BTW.

Love, Annamill

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Joybell
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 05:05 PM

I seem to remember Ewan McColl's "The First Time Ever I saw Your Face" used as a commercial but can't recall the details - cosmetics I think.

There was "Up Up in the Air" or whatever it was called used for an airline company.

"How can I Keep from Singing" recently for an animal charity - again can't recall the details.

Way back in the '50s there was "Cielito Lindo" used by Heinz as "...spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce, the meal that you'll simply adore-o"
Curse you Robin! I will have that with me agian just when it had gone away!

And - now I'm getting warmed up!
"Jellied raz'brys (phoneticly speaking)
Jellied raz'brys in a-milk-a-chocolate.
We all adore them. We all adore them
(something, somethings) got the lot"
sorry forgot the company.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Clinton Hammond
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 05:14 PM

"I seem to remember Ewan McColl's "The First Time Ever I saw Your Face""

Wasn't it the phone company? Around the time they thought Vid Phones were gonna catch on....

I may be out to sea...

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: The Fooles Troupe
Date: 06 Dec 03 - 05:40 PM

"Up, Up and Away" - airline commercial
"I still call Australia Home" also
"I am Australian" - Phone company that now takes 9 minutes to answer 000 (911 for USA) calls....

BTW, my main interest is "Songs pinched entire for commercials" but "songs rewritten with new words for commercials" is a close second.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: JennyO
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 09:17 AM

Joybell, that was Kiora -

"Aye aye aye aye,
Made by Kiora.
Spaghetti and meatballs in tomato sauce,
A meal that you're sure to adore-a."

And "Up up and away,
With TAA, the friendly friendly way...."

"The first time ever I saw your face" - that wasn't for baby powder or some sort of baby product, was it?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: GUEST
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 12:22 PM

In the UK, The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face sung by Roberta Flack has been used by Oil of Ulay skin cream and Macleans toothpaste.

It came to prominence on the soundtrack of Play Misty for Me.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: YorkshireYankee
Date: 07 Dec 03 - 06:43 PM

Leon Redbone also featured in adverts for beer (Coors, I think, but am far from sure...).

Remember the "Oscar Mayer Weiner" song? I'd be surprised if that's not actually the tune from a folk/kids' song with new words put to it.

I remember hearing that an account exec from some big ad agency in Detroit heard Greg Brown's "Taste a Little of the Summer" (a lovely, evocative song: "Taste a little of the summer/My Grandma's put it in a jar) on our local folk show ("Folks Like Us" on WDET). As it happened, he was working on a campaign for a company that produces BBQ sauce, so he called the station & asked for the song's particulars, got in touch with Greg Brown, etc. I know for a fact that the song was used in a TV commercial for a BBQ sauce -- it was very well done and (I would guess) fairly effective (even though I no longer remember the brand -- this was ~10 years ago, after all). They only needed to change a word or three.

I've always thought Vodaphone was missing a trick not putting new words to Paul Simon's "Kodachrome" (although who knows, maybe they've asked & been told no...).

Cheers,

YY

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Roger the Skiffler
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 09:28 AM

Leon Redbone did a Uk advert for Briitsh Rail ( before it got split up).

RtS

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: VIN
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 10:04 AM

Pretty sure 'Wild Mountain Thyme' (or 'will ye go lassie go') has been used in the past

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Anglo
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 10:42 AM

Well, on a recent trip back to the UK I was astonished to hear Bob Roberts singing Maggie May on an Amex Commercial. I caught it several times, so it seemed to be part of their general campaign.

I was also surprised to hear the voice of Garrison Keillor (well known to NPR audiences in the US for his Prairie Home Companion show) doing a voice over for a Honda commercial. I wouldn't have thought he'd be known in Britain, but I haven't seen the commercial in the States. Thank God he wasn't singing. Whover encouraged him in that direction should be shot.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Fred (Beetle) Bailey
Date: 08 Dec 03 - 02:45 PM

Is that Tom Paxton singing Woody's "I'm Gonna Mail Myself to you" for the U.S. Post Office? Hope he made a mint!

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: The Shambles
Date: 09 Dec 03 - 02:17 AM

There is a new car (UK) ad that uses a 'jazzed' version of 'May The Circle Be Unbroken'.

Does anyone know the artist on this one?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Burke
Date: 09 Dec 03 - 10:26 AM

Aaron Copland pinched "Simple Gifts" for "Appalachian Spring." AS was later used in a commercial zooming in on the Statue of Liberty, with the product mentioned right at the end. I think it was a car (Dodge?). I hated it as a travesty of what Shakers & simplicity are all about. I've heard the Shakers hated it as well.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Burke
Date: 09 Dec 03 - 10:29 AM

I first heard Turn Around(Malvina Reynolds, Alan Greene and Harry Belafonte) in a camera or film commercial.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: GUEST,James
Date: 09 Dec 03 - 12:35 PM

Wasn't the Nick Drake song Pink Moon used in a car commercial?

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: GUEST,Melani
Date: 09 Dec 03 - 02:09 PM

Right after Ken Burns' Civil War series popularized "Ashokan Farewell" by using it as a major theme, the phone company ran an ad using what was probably a specially-composed tune that sounded a lot like "Ashokan Farewell" but wasn't. I suspect Jay Unger wouldn't let them use the original.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Peace
Date: 09 Dec 03 - 03:36 PM

Sorry, pdq, just saw your response and I stand corrected. It was mixed up in my old brain, anyway. Thanks for the info.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: GUEST
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 11:13 AM

Aaron Copland's Hoe-Down is now better known as the "beef" song. The only saving grace is that people who would never listen to classical music might get a small intoduction to it. One commercial actually features a small orchestra playing (or faking) the piece during a backyard bar-b-que.

I think Hadfields (sp?) also pinched a bit of "Simple Gifts" for a pork commercial.

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: Helen
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 04:15 PM

My favourite recent ad music in Oz was David Byrne's (from Talking Heads) mambo(?) version of Don't Fence Me In, which is taken from the album of amazingly re-worked songs of Noel Coward, called Red, Hot & Blue. The ad was for a 4 wheel drive car - don't ask me which, because I was always listening to the song, and not looking at the car.

[RH&B is one album you would need to listen to quite a number of times before making your mind up whether you like it. The re-working of songs is so dramatically different from the original but amazingly good, in my opinion, once you slip into the mindset of each song arranger and the different singers.]

Helen

Subject: RE: Folklore: Songs Pinched for Adverts
From: John Hardly
Date: 15 Dec 03 - 04:37 PM

" (Celebrate)The Moments Of Your Life" and "We've Only Just Begun" were also in that weird area of commercial morass wherein, like the Coke commercial (I'd like to teach the world to sing), they actually began life as commercial music to sell prodict and ended as commercial product to sell a singer -- Crapenters and An(gst)ta.